“Stop the Capitulators”

100 years ago the French working class rose up against the bourgeoisie: that was the Commune. Against poverty and for freedom, the rifles of the Parisian workers pushed back the assaults of the bourgeoisie. They fought to overthrow the dictatorial power of the bosses. For the first time in the world, the workers rose up to overthrow the bourgeoisie. They rose up to assault the heavens. Paris was the first city liberated by the proletariat: the bourgeois were chased form it.

At Versailles the profiteers, panicked by the loss of their privileges, found only one weapon: have the gates of Paris opened by the German army. Through this opened breach the power of the profiteers re-entered Paris.

Today, in the same way, the bosses’ power is in a panic. It sees rising before it the powerful army of 10 million strikers, and it sees the support of an entire people surrounding the strikers. It’s a Commune a thousand times more powerful than the first that rises up before it.

At the brink of defeat, the bosses and their spokesman De Gaulle prepare to launch their assault against the workers’ fortresses: the occupied factories. They send there their cops, their fascist bands, the army. Why this assault? Because they feel in their bones that the main obstacle is the occupation of the factories, that this is the stronghold of the workers.

The confrontation with the workers in the factories cannot occur in a simple way. Once the mass of workers have gathered, once the gates of the factories are closed, they won’t open before the bosses, even if they're surrounded by cops.

The bosses are looking for those who will open the gates for them, and they find them! It’s the capitulators, the panic-stricken, all those who spend their days demoralizing the workers, in wanting them to cede, but not for total victory, rather for a little piece of candy: elections.

De Gaulle, his back to the wall, says; “Stop the fight, you'll have elections.” The leaders of the PCF, the leaders of the CGT, betraying what’s left of the confidence granted them by the masses, lay down before him, capitulate and declare: “This is what we've called for a long time. It’s a great victory, now we're going to do everything we can so that the factories open.” In the eyes of the grandchildren of the Communards, the PCF is nothing but the party of the Versaillais.